Welcome to My Musical Express GE001 – the first step along the path to follow Genesis, one of the greatest progressive rock bands in the world.

These editions are about the music with incidental information about the band, its activities and its members.

There are many excellent books and publications recounting the story of Genesis and its members and we will reference them and occasionally link to them for your enjoyment.

The musical journey starts in 1969 when five students from Charterhouse School near Godalming in the south of England, having broken their teeth on a couple of musical projects – Garden Wall and Anon joined together to write some pop music.

Anon, often referred to as The Anon, were made up of pupils from Charterhouse School in Surrey.

Formed in the 1960s, this group is highly notable for a double-bill performance they played with another school band called Garden Wall on 27 July 1966.

Key members of Anon who later formed Genesis include:

• Mike Rutherford (Bass/Guitar)
• Anthony Phillips (Guitar)
• Richard Macphail (Vocals)

Key members of The Garden Wall who later formed Genesis include:

• Anthony Banks (organ, piano, mellotron, guitar, voices)
• Peter Gabriel (lead vocals, flute, accordion, tambourine)
• Chris Stewart (drums)

This iteration of the band never released any commercial material.

The band managed to entice a former pupil of the school who was in the music business (Jonathan King) into listening to their music.  He was impressed and saw potential in their creations so arranged for them to make the recording that eventually became their first album. 

Neither the band nor the album had a title although the group liked the name: Genesis. 

At the time there was already a band called Genesis so the group remained unnamed and the album was simply entitled From Genesis to Revelation.